The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Bissau, Guinea-Bissau | AFP | Voters in Guinea-Bissau have a choice between two old political hands in Sunday’s presidential election run-off, although both have very different styles and backgrounds.
Here are profiles of the two men:
– Domingos Simoes Pereira –
Former prime minister Pereira has been politically active since his youth but this is his first run for the top office in Guinea-Bissau, a country with a turbulent history of coups since independence.
Known throughout the country by his initials “DSP” — and his Panama hat — the 56-year-old Pereira is a former ally of outgoing President Jose Mario Vaz but now his fiercest critic.
Pereira, leader of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), scored just over 40 percent of the vote in the first round in November, well ahead of his rival Umaro Sissoco Embalo.
In the campaign’s only televised debate this week, he portrayed himself as the candidate of virtue and good management, and accused Embalo of illegally financing his campaign from abroad.
“The money which you are bringing into the country isn’t going through legal channels,” he charged.
A civil engineer by training, Pereira studied in Ukraine and California.
Since his youth he has been active in the PAIGC, which led the bloody struggle for independence from Portugal in 1974.
He became party leader in 2014 and was picked to become prime minister by Vaz who won a presidential election that year.
But the two men quickly fell out over accusations of mismanagement of the country and corruption and he was sacked by Vaz in August 2015.
Pereira led his party to election victory in March this year but Vas refused to nominate him as prime minister.
A Christian, Pereira is married with three children. He is a member of one of the country’s smallest ethnic minorities, the Kasanga.
Before becoming prime minister, he served as minister of public works in 2004-2005. He also led the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) between 2008 and 2012.
– Umaro Sissoco Embalo –
Embalo is a reserve brigadier general who wears a red-and-white Arab keffiyeh headress and is pitching himself as a unifier of the nation.
He is also a former prime minister, under Vaz between 2016 and 2018, but now represents Madem, a party formed by PAIGC rebels.
The 47-year-old who is nicknamed “The General” trailed Pereira in the first round of voting with just under 28 percent, but has come out fighting.
In Thursday’s debate, he hit back at Pereira’s allegations, accusing his rival of “dipping into the state’s coffers” to finance his election campaign and lashing the PAIGC for mismanaging the economy.
Embalo says he is a “Muslim married to a Christian”, and like Pereira, he is the father of three children. To burnish his credentials, during the debate the multilingual candidate spoke in Portuguese Creole, which is spoken by a large part of the population.
He hopes to bank on the support of the main candidates who were eliminated in the first round, including Vaz.
Born in the capital city Bissau, Embalo is a member of the Fulani ethnic group, and he studied social and political science in Spain and Portugal. He is a football fan, and supports Belgian team Standard Liege.
He sought early retirement from the army in the 1990s, and got involving in business, including an investment fund set up by the regime of ousted Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
In October, Prime Minister Aristide Gomes of the PAIGC, accused him of plotting a coup, charges Embalo denied.
“I’m not a bandit and I never get involved in subversive actions. Those who know me know that I am not violent,” he told AFP at the time.
